John Keble

Portrait of John Keble.

John Keble was born on April 25, 1792 in Fairford, England. He was a noted Anglican theologian and poet. Educated at home by his fater he earned a scholorship in 1806 to Corpus Christi College in Oxford. In 1811 he was elected to a fellowship at Oriel College in Oxford. Keble was ordained as a Deacon in 1815 and as a priest in 1816.

Between the years of 1819 and 1827 he wrote a collection of hymns and poetry which were published in 1827 The Christian Year . The book sold many copies, and was highly effective in spreading Keble’s devotional and theological views. His style was more popular then than now, but some of his poems are still in use as hymns.

Keble was Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1831 to 1841, and from 1836 until his death thirty years later he was priest of a small parish in the village of Hursley, near Winchester.

Between 1813 and 1823 he held a series of positions at Oxford including: examiner, public examiner responsions and college tutor at Oriel. In May 1823, on the death of his mother, he resigned his position to live with his family in Fairford. Keble’s July 14, 1833 sermon on the “National Apostasy” is considered the beginning of the Oxford Movement. In 1835, following the death of his father, Keble married Charlotte Clarke.

In 1847 he produced another volume of poems, “Lyra Innocentium,” which associated doctrines of the Church with the lives of children, whom he loved, though his own marriage was childless.

His works include an edition of Richard Hooker’s works (1836), a life of Bishop Wilson (1863), the Oxford Psalter (1839) and Lyra Innocentium: Thoughts in Verse on Children (1846). Among his poems are the well-known hymns Red o’er the Forest , New Every Morning Is Thy Love , and Sun of My Soul.